Volunteering in Cochabamba 2
The Last 2 Weeks
11.07.2011 - 25.07.2011
24 °C
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Latin America
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During my third week in Cochabamba, the 7th and last Harry Potter movie was released and I went to see it at the cinema at midnight with my host family. Since we were a big group, we had to be there early to make sure we could all sit together. This meant hours of queuing, made even worse by the fact that we were almost the last screen to be let in. In the end it did not matter though because we all enjoyed the movie a lot. The end of all Harry Potter stories!
On Thursday some volunteers from Sustainable Bolivia had rented a bus for their leaving celebration, which we used as a party bus. We were partying on the bus while being driven all around Cochabamba and the bus stopped at some bars/clubs, although I only stayed until the others got on the bus again after the first bar because it was late already and I had to work the next morning. This was such a cool idea and a fun night.
On the party bus
That weekend, I went, with 5 other people, to the Chapare, a region in the jungle not far from Cochabamba. We travelled to Villa Tunari, the main town. From there we visited some natural pools on the first day and went to Parque Machía, an Ecological Reserve. Here we saw many monkeys and some other animals. We had a nice relaxing weekend and I enjoyed it not being cold at night for once too.
In the Chapare

In the Chapare

In the Chapare

In the Chapare
On Sunday afternoon, we tried to get a transportation back. There are only a few buses a day, so that most people get a kind of taxi for 7 people. To get there, this was simple and quick. However, going back proved more difficult. We had to queue to be put on a waiting list, this already took about 20 minutes. Then we had to wait for our turn to get on a free taxi. Since we were 6 people and almost filled a whole car, we had to wait about 1 1/2 hours until finally they could get us on a taxi. By this time, it was pouring rain and soon it started getting dark and foggy as well. After about 1 1/2 hours drive, we stopped at the site of an accident. A car had gone off the road because of the bad weather. Our driver went to see what had happened and if he could help. He came back with a woman who was asking us whether we could make space for a man injured in the accident. She said he was dieing and we had to take him to the next hospital. So we did. A little boy was also put into our car. The boy was crying for his mother who was in another car behind us, while we tried to help the man who had a head injury. Luckily, we had a medical student with us who knew what to do and took care of the man as good as possible in the car. 30 minutes later we reached the next town with a hospital, where the injured was taken care of. He was alright in the end and we drove on. I was wondering again why things like that kept happening to (or around) me...
In my last week, I met up with some of my friends a few times and Thursday we had a pizza night at the Sustainable Bolivia house. Some guys had prepared the dough and sauce and we could make our own pizzas with the toppings they had bought. A very tasty pizza!
On Saturday morning, I went with a friend to visit the Palacio Portales, a beautiful palace built for Simon I. Patiño, who in the end never lived in the house because he died before he could retire there. The palace is decorated mainly with materials and items from other countries, mostly from Europe. By coincidence, there was also an event in the palace's gardens that day. Bolivian writers were there to present and sell their books. We looked at the books for a while and could not resist: we both had to buy a few books. The authors even signed them for us. Now I have got a lot of reading material for the next weeks.
Palacio Portales
Saturday night, we celebrated my and another girl's goodbye and a birthday. We started in the SB house and then later on went dancing. This was it then, I would be leaving Cochabamba in 2 days...
My goodbye party

My goodbye party
The Sunday I spent with my host family and at night, I went to see Transformers 3.
On Monday it was time to say goodbye at work. So sad to know I'll never see the children again :-(
To finish off my Cochabamba sightseeing, I walked around the city some more and went to the Arqueological Mueum that afternoon. They have some really interesting objects and mummies from pre-Colombian cultures in the area.
Cochabamba

Cochabamba

The Cristo seen from the city
After a last dinner and packing the rest of my things, I was accompanied by some of my host family to the bus terminal and I got on a bus to La Paz, from where I would travel straight on to Puno in Peru. So this was the end of my (great) time in Bolivia :-(
With my host family

Waiting for the bus with my host family
Posted by sarahm_lux 21:55 Archived in Bolivia Comments (0)